Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. has received IND clearance from the FDA to begin a phase I study of ARCT-2304, a self-amplifying mRNA (sa-mRNA) vaccine candidate for active immunization to prevent pandemic influenza disease caused by H5N1 virus.
Ifast Diagnostics Ltd. raised $6.5 million (£5 million) in seed funding to bring its rapid Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) platform to the market. The company’s technology is vital in the fight against antimicrobial resistance and the funds will be used to conduct clinical trials to get the product to the market in the U.K., U.S. and EU, CEO Toby King, told BioWorld.
Westlake Pharmaceutical (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd. has prepared and tested new 3C-like proteinase (3CLpro; Mpro; nsp5) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of coronavirus acute respiratory syndrome.
Modified vaccinia Ankara immunization in nonhuman primate models of lethal mpox virus infection, although effective to some extent, has been linked to breakthrough lesions and throat swab viremia.
Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) and the Southern Research Institute have patented compounds reported to be useful for the treatment of alphaviral infections.
F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. and Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. have patented tricyclic compounds acting as UDP-2,3-diacylglucosamine hydrolase (LpxH) (bacterial) inhibitors and thus reported to be useful for the treatment of gram-negative bacterial infections.
Malaria is caused by Plasmodium species that infect hundreds of millions of people annually. Among the plasmodia, Plasmodium falciparum is considered the most dangerous due to frequent severe clinical complications and high mortality rates. Researchers from the University of California at Riverside described the discovery and mechanism of action of MED-6189, a kalihinol analog effective against drug-sensitive and drug-resistant P. falciparum strains in vitro and in vivo.
Isoniazid is a first-line medicine for tuberculosis (TB) treatment. It is a prodrug activated by the mycobacterial catalase-peroxidase enzyme KatG. However, the development of isoniazid resistance compromises treatment efficacy and contributes to multidrug-resistant TB infections.
One of the challenges associated with COVID-19 has been an increase of secondary infections, including fungal infections. These coinfections can hinder treatment efficacy and increase illness severity.
Researchers from Purdue University and Eradivir Inc. presented a newly developed bispecific small molecule (zanDR) that bound and inhibited influenza neuraminidase on both free virus and virus-infected cells and also recruited the immune system. zanDR recruited naturally occurring anti-rhamnose and anti-dinitrophenyl (DNP) antibodies with rhamnose and DNP haptens.